Order Approvals (DRAFT)

How it works

Commerce Vision's Order Approval funtionality allows customers to set an approver for orders over a specific dollar amount. The process goes something like this:

1. A user places an order which is over their $ limit, and therefore requires approval.
2. An approver (or group of approvers) will approve or reject the order (or individual lines) on the order.
3. If approved, the order is submitted and integrates to the ERP.

Approval modes

There are 3 modes to choose from, each with increasing complexity:

1. Approval By User - a simple 1-to-1 relationship. One user's orders are approved by another user who is the nominated approver (these users don't even have to be on the same account).
   
   
2. Approval By User and Account - multiple users may be eligible to approve orders, as long as they are on the same account and have the required approval limit for the order in question. 
   
   

3. Advanced Approval By User and Account - offers advanced options for multi-person approval, approval hierarchies, and approval groups.

Implementation

Approval By User

This is a simple order approval process. An order limit is set for the user, and an Approver is nominated. Any orders over the user's limit will require approval.

To Configure Approval By User:

1. In the CMS, navigate to 'Settings' → 'Settings'.
2. Select the 'Orders' tab.
3. Select the 'Restrictions and Charges' sub-tab.

4. Set Use Advanced Order Approval to 'Approval By User'. If you have a checkbox displaying instead of a dropdown list, simply leave the box unticked for this mode).
   
   
   

5. Click the 'Update' button at the bottom of the page to save changes.

Update each user whose orders will require approval: 

1. Navigate to Users → Advanced User Maintenance.
2. Search for and select the ordering user.
3. Click 'Modify' on the User tab.
4. Update the 'Order Limit' field to the dollar value you wish to trigger approval at.
5. Update the 'Orders Approved By' field to the email address/user ID of the approving user.
6. Click OK to save.
   
   

If you don't see the 'Order Limit' field on this User tab, get in touch and we'll add it for you!

If you've got lots of users to update, you can do it in bulk. See our article on Data Import for more information. 

Approval By User and Account

With this mode, users are given order limits for various order functions. For example, a user may have a 'Requisition Limit' of $999999.00, and an 'Order Limit' of $200.00. This user can submit orders up to $200 in value without approval, but any orders $200.01 - $999,999.00 will require approval. Approving users on the same customer account code with an 'Approval Limit' greater than the order value will be able to approve the order. If there isn't a user with an appropriate approval limit for the order, an error message will be displayed to the User: 'Order cannot be submitted as there is no approver with the correct approval limit authority.'

Multiple users on the same customer account code can be eligible to approve an order, provided they have the correct approval limits.

To Set Up Advanced Order Approval:

1. In the CMS, navigate to 'Settings' → 'Settings'.
2. Select the 'Orders' tab.
3. Select the 'Restrictions and Charges' sub-tab.

4. Set the 'Use Advanced Order Approval' drop-down to 'Approval By User and Account'. 
   

   If your site is displaying 'Use Advanced Order Approval' as a checkbox, please get in touch with our Support team. We'll update the field to display the appropriate options.

5. Click 'Update' at the bottom of the page to save your changes.

Once the system-wide setting has been updated, the User's '$Limits' settings can be updated:

1. Navigate to 'Accounts' --> 'Advanced User Maintenance' (/UserMaintenance.aspx?mode=admin).
2. Search for the required User.
3. Select the User record via radio button.
4. Click the 'Accounts' tab.
5. If the user has multiple Customer Codes, select the correct record via radio button.
6. On the '$Limits' tab, click 'Edit'.
7. Set the value in the 'Approval Limit' field to the required dollar amount.
8. Set the value in the 'Order Limit' field to the required dollar amount.
9. Set the value in the 'Requisition Limit' field to the required dollar amount.
10. Click the 'Update' button to save changes.
11. Repeat Steps 2-10 for other users on the account, including users who will have approval authority.

Related articles

• Page:
  Preferred Delivery Date
• Page:
  How Order Integration Works
• Page:
  Standing Orders Settings
• Page:
  Order Templates
• Page:
  Online Returns